Recently I was reading a devotional on faith and Abraham the Father of our faith was used as a demonstration. We have all read.....
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." - Romans 1:17
And,
For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." - Romans 4:3 (Galatians 3:6, James 2:23)
In meditating upon Abraham I remembered John saying how he admired how he went "out". He told me he kept hearing that word "out". And it came back to me about Abram's beginnings (oh yes his name changed later). In Genesis 12 it says, "Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family and your father's house to a land that I will show you." He proceeds to tell him how he will make of him a great nation. And I wondered 2 things, Why did God call him to leave all he knew, and how long it took for Abram to finally do it.
It doesn't give us the details of how long it took but I was meditating on the Why? too. Personal experience can in many ways take a portion of scripture that we may have read a thousand times and make it (yes I will say it) jump off the page.
First the Why:
In the last 7 years I have lived in 6 different places. Some were temporary while waiting for the next place. First my home of 20 years, then an Appartment, then my parent's, then a small apt while waiting for where I live now with another widow. And even that is not necessarily secure or the end of the line. I have cried time and again because I feel so uprooted. Maybe even more lately as I have gotten my parents house ready to sell. Going through 60 years of stuff, memories flood your being. And knowing the house, the only home you knew as a child will soon be in the hands of another. While sifting through it all there were times I had to stop, weep, and ask the Lord for the strength to go on. A whole lifetime of memories. And especially with John not there the journey is that much more painful. We are for the most creatures of habit and we like sameness that is predictable and comfortable. No ruffled feathers in our nest. In fact I hear quoted "bloom where you are planted" more than "get out of your country" (and the first is not scripture). But what if God says move, go out to a land (place) I will show you? Go? Go where? Where's the map God? I have GPS on my phone, just give me the address. What? You'll let me know along the way? This isn't gelling with my plans, you know....plans? Like written out and put into graphs and spreadsheets with projected outcome in view? This is just not smart. What? Of course I trust you! So why this waiting game....?
Well all in all we like to think of Abraham as our father of easy faith. He believed....and it was accounted to him for righteousness. God first separated him from what was familiar then while in the "waiting game" He declares His plan of making a great nation with this old man and lady. It was a future plan but it needed faith in the beginning, faith that trusted what one could not see in any chart.
I've heard faith quoted as this often, "faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen" but the understanding of it is very limited. We live in a society that I find most difficult to really walk in faith in. We have most of what we need at our fingertips, and a lot of entertainment to lull ourselves to want more. (Making us watchers) Moving out and Waiting and trusting are not on the menu of this culture. But what if God needed this to happen because in order to gain a new identity one has to lose the old one. Again, What? God loves me just the way I am! Hate to burst your protective bubble, but no He does not. He loves us but not the sinful selfish way we are. He loves us enough to help us change, to become what we were intended to be by the One who made us. If He crushes us , it is to make a whole new vessel (Jeremiah 18:4) if He strips, it is to put on new garments, (Eph 4:22) If He empties, it is to fill anew. (Eph 3:14-19) As I read the scriptures the Why part of this question is endless! It is for Him to reveal as the journey unfolds....
The next question is "How long?"
How long before you let go of the familiar, the comfortable, the dead pursuits of money and the world's praise and hear What the Spirit is saying to you. To give Him your GPS and plans and learn to wait, hear, trust and obey whatever it is He shows you. To step out of your (overly used term) comfort zone and find the faith our father Abraham did. What he did, did not bring him fame and praise in his lifetime but this is what he is called, the friend of God. Wow I want to be God's friend. I'm learning to trust. For that is faith in relationship. It is knowing the God of my life and being confident in His plans and care for me. I have faced a lot of loss, feeling like a nomad in a desert, but as I lift my heart God shows me this 18 year old girl lying on the floor of this 60 year old homestead praying with all her heart, God I want to know You! I give you all of me, take me, use me, I am Yours!"
I smile as I look, now over 41 years later at the spot, my altar and thank the Lord that He heard me and took me at my word. Will you join me on the journey? To a land full of promise, to a God full of possibilities.........to Be His loving and trusting friend. Oh the tears I've cried, but also tears of joy as I experience His faithfulness, His leading, His cloud by day and fire by night leading me on to eternity.......
